Do you know that in the United States, each person throws 1,400 pounds of garbage a year? And this number was recorded 10 years ago! People now order takeaways, tons of deliveries, online shopping, etc. The number amount of garbage increases every year. Garbage includes all different things, not just plastic, like metal, iron, plastic, food, or toys. Garbage waste looks like an everyday thing, every day, there will be trash outside everyone’s door. But when people zoom in, they will find out that dumping waste is not a small problem, it connects to the bigger environment and society, which connects to United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 13, 14, and 15. These goals are not yet reached, many people now realized the importance of environmental health, but there are still many necessary steps to take things to do to reach the goals. Although many countries have started to take action against garbage and waste, it is still a huge global problem that negatively impacts both the environment and individuals.

Figure 1- Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 13, 14, and 15. Source

Effects on People and Country

The goal to reduce garbage started many years ago, but still did not meet the expectations. The US generates about 180 million tons per year of municipal solid waste in 2000. 1,400 pounds per year per person. Among all the garbage, only 27% was reused or recycled, and about 73% of it is buried. (Garbage Garbage Garbage). In a garbage study, it shows, “The United States buries enough steel, plastic, and aluminum to produce 2 million automobiles, enough wood to build a million homes, enough paper to produce all our newspapers and half a million house trailers’ worth of aluminum. The energy in the waste could produce 30 thousand megawatts of electric power.”(Kreith). In 1978 there were 20,000 landfills where waste could be deposited. By 1988 the number had dropped to 6,000 and by 1993 only 4,000 landfills were left (Kreith). From this evidence, we can see that people buy a lot of products, but before they use them up, it’s thrown in the trash. 73%of the garbage that was buried can be recycled, like metal or paper products. However, people decide to bury everything to reduce the process and cost. Also, we can see that the reduce- garbage plan started years ago but did not make any progress, instead, garbage landfills are increasing.

Figure 2- This graph shows the percentage of total waste and the waste recycled in the United States from 1960 to 2011. Source

To find the causes of why garbage increases every year, many professors investigated peoples’ daily garbage. For example, in the article “Need food, clothes, or a bed? You might find it in New York City’s trash”, the author introduced the university professor, Robin Nagle. She studies garbage around New York. She often rides around on New York City garbage trucks and looks at the things people throw out. She concludes and believes that people in New York throw a lot of things away and many things they throw away can be reused or recycled. However, they just throw them away, and it’s a big waste of resources (Need Food Clothes). Another reason she infers why people throw so much is that houses are too small, so, people toss out things to keep their rooms clean. Reasoning: The professor used the word “dazzling” to describe the garbage thrown by the people. Many of the products are new and can be used. People do not take the time to sort out things they don’t need. As a result, people decided that they should not waste time on everything that can dump out. Just like what Nagle said, “New Yorkers tend to treat just about everything as something to throw out, she says. Furniture, electronics, and clothing are all put in the trash.” (Need food clothes). People wasting products and tossing out things do not just happen in New York. Along with the rise of package food, takeaways, and all the online shopping, the garbage-waste problem increased to a peak that had never been reached before.

Figure 3- Professor Robin Nagle looking through garbage thrown in New York. Source

Effects on the Environment

Since the 19th, only a small amount of it is ever recycled. In a study in 2015, scientists calculated that 448million tons of plastic were produced a year in the US, but only 18% overall were recycled, others were dumped in landfills or the ocean. This number did not improve a lot since 1989 when 14% of garbage was recycled back then (Anastasia).

Figure 4- People collecting ocean samples (garbage wastes) at the GPGP area. Source

For example, one of the largest garbage patches in the ocean: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP for short). It is starting to expand greater. Twice the size of Texas, the floating garbage mass is 16 times larger than the previous. According to scientists who participated in the research, it is carrying about 79,000 metric tons of plastic (The Great Pacific). This garbage patch was found in the eastern Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. Over time, the big plastic objects break down into smaller bits, much cannot be seen by eyes. Other trash or big objects that will not break down float around the patch. GPGP is just one of the largest garbage patches in the ocean, only a small part of the whole problem. Garbage to us humans is just a daily normal thing, but to the sea animals, it’s things that end their lives. Fished and sea turtles might accidentally swallow plastic pieces or tangled by ropes. Researchers investigated the GPGP and found that 94% over 1.8 trillion pieces of trash in the patch are microplastic, but the mass is just 8% of the total. More than 75% of the 79,000 metric tons of garbage are large plastics (The Great Pacific). The patch of garbage increases every year, there is garbage all around the world, from 1977 to now. The big patches of garbage make people wonder about how humans created it and the impact on humans.

Figure 5- Many Philippine countries are facing problems caused by garbage waste. Wastes strongly impacted the environmental health and the water was seriously polluted. This image shows a father with a son, paddling through a polluted river full of garbage waste, trying to find some bottles to sell to the junk shops. Source

Possible Solutions

Luckily, people are starting to take action to save the environment. People found many possible solutions to prevent the problem to get worse. Many people realized the problem and acted many years ago, Paul Palmer founded the Zero Waste Institute in the 1970s. He was one of the first people to promote zero waste. He believes that recycling isn’t enough. In cradle-to-cradle design, all parts of a product are either biological nutrients or technical nutrients. This means everything can be safely returned to the earth to become food for other organisms. After a few years, people also designed the waste-to-energy solution to reduce waste. They convert waste to heat or electricity to reduce and help the health of the environment. Scientists predict, by 2050, people can avoid 2-3 gigatons of greenhouse gas because of the reduction of methane in the waste landfills (Waste- To- Energy). People had argued about this solution, because the process will take too much time, and instead of using waste to convert to energy, wind, sun, or water energy are a better choice. However, just talking about the solutions to garbage waste, this solution is one of the possible ways to solve the problem in a short time.

Figure 6- The process of Waste- To- Energy solution. Source

Honda, Subaru, General Motors, and Ford are car companies that started zero waste programs early in 2000. The food company Nestlé announced in 2015 that all 23 of its U.S factories are now zero waste (Gale). More people realize the importance of environmental health and started to make rules that help businesses and households recycle. Another example, in 2009 San Francisco, passed a law about zero waste. The law made recycling and reducing waste necessary. By 2010, San Francisco successfully prevented 80% of its landfills and incinerators and become “the greenest city” (Gale). From all the solutions, people can see the potential of everyone contributing to recycling and reducing garbage waste. One person cannot do a lot to improve, but if everyone joins to help, people can make Earth a better place.

Conclusion

To conclude, reducing garbage waste is a big problem globally, and many countries and people started to take action. However, some countries’ environments and people are still strongly impacted. Reducing and recycling garbage waste connects to many SDG goals, so if the garbage problem is solved, it will also help many of the other environmental goals and problems. Everyone wants their own country to improve, to be the top country both technologically and economically. People design all kinds of products, new technology, and apps, like shopping apps or take-away apps. These new technologies and products do make people’s lives more convenient, but in the long run, the garbage generated by these technologies and products has much more negative than positive. As all the things move on, people must not forget they also have to care about the environment and nature.